It turns out I have a garden.

I moved in when there was still snow on the ground, and I only knew that there was a little patch of soil in my backyard from the few dead stems sticking out of the snow canopy. Eventually the snow melted, then spring came and passed, but the soil remained barren and dry. Summer started, and Trolley noticed some sprouting when he would go to smoke outside. He pulled some dead growth and weeds but did nothing more, not even a watering. The garden just started to bloom by itself.

I have no idea what kind of plants they are, but they seem to be doing well.

I got to work early this morning, around 7:30 or so. It was an effort to make up for yesterday, in which I called in sick. By 8:30, my boss had asked me to go to his cottage and help him with his new pontoon, and we left by nine.

After picking the boat up from the dealership, I was charged with the task of driving his car from one of the boat docks of the lake to his cottage. We spent the whole day there, and I managed to get in a few photos. I like the shot of the upholstery the most: the colours are perfect, and have those luxurious, matching cream colours that are so characteristic of aqua vehicles. Even the motor is pretty sweet (4-stroke electronic fuel injection) and only requires the turn of a key to start.

I’m exhausted now, but it was definitely nice to be out of the office and on a lake, on a Thursday no less.

Took care of Chaos over the weekend. Karen’s off in Toronto for a month, and Aaron went to visit Greg (who joined the reserves). Chaos is getting a lot bigger, and even though he’s not quite an adult yet, he’s getting more and more difficult to lift.

I’ve been thinking about a second cat, ever since Shirley suspected that her cats were giving her children allergies. We were playing around with the idea of me adopting one of them (the younger male), and she already told her kids that one of the cats may be going. Unfortunately, she found a bald spot on him, and needs to get him checked out first. If the vet visit goes alright, then we may do a one-month trial, to make sure that he gets along with both Dolly and Nala. I’m still not sure if I’m up for the commitment though. Dolly is enough of a handful already, and I seem to be getting busier every day.

Went camping over the long weekend. Pictures/video to come soon/eventually.

I thought I knew what to expect financially in owning a home. I was ready for mortgage payments, lawyers fees, gas bills, title insurance, land transfer tax (which is a separate payment from the name change fee), and any other random thing that may cost me money.

What I wasn’t ready for was the rapacious urge to purchase things. Things that cover windows, things that illuminate the corners of rooms. Things that go in houses, things that look nice. Things to play, things that organize other things.

So I spent some money. Got the living/dining room and two bedrooms professionally painted. Bought a 53″ Widescreen HDTV Projection TV. Of course, I needed a progressive scan DVD player to go with it (as well as composite cables for that and the Gamecube, which cost more than the DVD player itself). I even bought four games - Paper Mario, Viewtiful Joe 2, Timesplitters: Future Perfect, and Pikmin 2 — so that I could take advantage of widescreen and progressive scan support. There were also a few costly trips to Ikea, Homesense, Home Depot for things like tables, bowls, king sized pillows, and Egyptian cotton pillowcases.

I’m in debt for the first (and hopefully last) time in my life. I was up to seven grand at one point, but the smaller part of it (all on credit cards) was paid-off with the help of my last paycheque, and the larger half happens to be interest-free. I have to mention, though, that a significant portion of what’s left has been reduced, to the generosity of my parents. $2000 of it was towards a set of custom-sized mirrored closet doors to be installed in my room and in the coat closet, and they decided to pay for them as a housewarming gift. Pat also got me a barbecue that fits perfectly on my back patio, along with cover, cooking utensils, and wire-string brush.

My goal is to pay off the debt as soon as I can, and start putting 10% of my pay into a high-interest savings account. I’d also like to save 2% of my annual salary for house repairs and upkeep, while looking into higher RRSP contributions and possibly an extra mortgage payment by the end of the year.

This’ll be hard, however, because I’m itching for a new computer. I admit that I couldn’t help but take advantage of a great deal on Dell’s 19″ viewable flat panel monitors, so I bought two. Unfortunately, with a laptop, I can only use one for the time being. I’ve been looking at the new P4 Extreme Edition processors, which are dual core with hyper-threading on each that can simulate four processors. I’m trying to wait until the price drops a bit, seeing as how one of these costs as much as an entire new system. Normally I wouldn’t even consider spending so much on a CPU, but I can easily justify it with all the video encoding and photo manipulation I’ve been doing lately. I’ll probably be able to afford one by the time they become reasonably priced.